(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates a system for measuring aviation risks for improved aircraft safety and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to an aircraft flight measuring system for providing a flight planning aid to a pilot, flight dispatcher and an owner/operator. The new aircraft flight measuring system calculates various risk factors and provides a summary report. The report can be used prior to flight time or during flight to aid in a decision to fly or not or to change a flight destination.
(b) Discussion of Prior Art
Prior to any aircraft flight under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, a pilot must create a flight-plan, which identifies the specifics of the intended flight. The process can be performed on paper or using a number of different electronic methods including a microcomputer or the internet, serviced by web browser. This process is intended to ensure that the flight will arrive safely. In some cases, the pilot may elect to provide his or her flight plan to a Flight Service Station (FSS) for entry into the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. However, for flights in Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC), this is not mandatory.
In flight planning, an implied risk management function is a weak link due to human factors, which may affect the pilot. For these reasons, the FAA has established a set of regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for commercial flight, which require additional restrictions to be met before a flight can proceed. One of the restrictions includes a use of an independent dispatcher. The dispatcher must be someone not part of the required aircraft crew. The addition of the dispatcher is intended to provide an impartial review of the flight to aid in decision-making and enhance safety. Several non-governmental organizations exist for the purpose of educating the pilot population such as the Airplane Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and their sister agency the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. These groups provide free and low-cost seminars, videos and self-education materials to the general public. Several educational materials vendors including King Aviation Schools provide self-education materials, books, video and distance learning. In either case the pilot must already be aware of the risks inherent in flight, or be encouraged to take the courses and attend seminars, participation at these events is entirely voluntary although encouraged by the FAA.
Commercial flight training companies such as Flight Safety International provide continuing education services for fleet operators and air-taxi services. These companies provide type certifications, re-currency and Crew-Resource-Management (CRM). A type-certification is an authorization to act as pilot-in-command of an aircraft, which has been determined by the FAA to require certain aircraft specific knowledge. Pilots are required to maintain “currency”, which is a minimum of recent experience in specified operations such as instrument landings, night time takeoffs and landings. CRM are procedures and methods for multi-pilot cockpit operations, which attempt to reduce potential confusion or inter-personal effects in flight. These services are prohibitively expensive for single pilot-single aircraft operations and are specifically targeted at covering regulatory requirement. Risk management is not typically an explicit goal of these services.
During a flight, the pilot is completely in charge of the safety of the flight up to and including diverging from the CFRs when the pilot feels its necessary. In cases of a multi-person crew, the pilot may request and receive advice. However, only one person can be considered the Pilot-In-Command (PIC). Just as in the case of flight planning, human factors can affect a pilot's decision making. Also, this extends to the crew as well. There is significant anecdotal evidence of multi-pilot operations where all the crew members were unable to make correct decisions. In some cases a telecommunications system is available which allows the pilot to speak with ground personnel, however without in flight information the ground crew can rarely be of substantial timely help in resolving in-flight issues.
Finally, although the CFR's require extensive record keeping for maintenance and pilot proficiency, there is no codified method or procedure for evaluating a pilot's skill for the management of risk. Safety training, recurrent training and other methods of educational instruction for pilots have shown some success in helping good pilots sharpen their skills. But, no training can predetermine all possible situations a pilot may encounter.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,538,581 to Cowie and U.S. Pat. No. 6,043,758 to Snyder, multiple methods for monitoring a flight in progress for collision risk are disclosed. In general, these disclosures are primarily focused on alerting a pilot, a ground controller or owner/operator of a flight in-progress and an impending collision with traffic or terrain. This information is not used to assess pre-flight risk factors or risk factors during flight. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,710,559 to Krogmann, a systemic monitoring device and method is described. This system is focused on alerting a crew of the aircraft to an impending in-flight issue and no pre-flight functions are provided. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,143 to Weinstock, general risk management methodologies with software are described. The patent discloses the calculation of failure modes and associated risks using various computational algorithms. These algorithms are based on engineering analysis of possible point failures in the system and mission analyzed. The underlying vehicle specific failure information is static and can be reused. But, for each mission the user of the system must manually create a detailed analysis of the route and other relevant mission specific data. By contrast, the subject invention is intended to gather failure probabilities from historical accident data and uses existing flight-planning information to computationally create a mission data report used for risk factor analysis.
None of the above-mentioned prior art patents specifically disclose the unique features, combination of components and function of the subject aircraft flight risk measuring system and method of operation as described herein.